There weren't a lot of places for Ginger Gonzaga, one of the stars of the new ABC comedy "Mixology," to show off her comedy skills while growing up in Modesto, Calif. That didn't stop her from finding ways to make people laugh.

"My cousin, who's dating a girl I knew in high school, found all of her home videos. I was in them. It's a lot of us improvising really funny commercials and doing characters and dressing up. There wasn't that much to do, so we would dress up and knock on people's doors as these funny characters," she says. "When I saw those tapes, I realized I have enjoyed acting since I was, like, 7 years old."

From that simple start sprang a career that now has her in a large cast for a new comedy that takes place in a high-end Manhattan bar over one night. Each episode features what happens to the different bar patrons, including Gonzaga's Maya, a sports attorney who is tough as nails and tired of the wimpish metrosexual men who populate New York's dating scene.

Gonzaga's performance career started with The Groundlings improv troupe in Los Angeles, and she's since worked at comedy clubs and U.S. military bases in South Korea, plus various film and TV roles. Before being cast in "Mixology," she appeared on "The Millers," "The Finder," "Growing Up Fisher," "Family Guy" and "Legit."

Although "Mixology" is a scripted series, Gonzaga has been able to use her improvisation training.

"We always get the scene as it's written and then a lot of times they will let us run with it," Gonzaga says. "If you are the main story of the show, you are going to have a lot of monologues and you can change some of the jokes in the monologue. It feels so good to have that freedom and it means a lot to us because you get to show how clever you are."

The series has a similar time structure to "24." Gonzaga jokes that "Mixology" will have fewer terrorists.

Most of the action will take place over a few hours, but there are flashback scenes that fill in the history of why the patrons — and some of the staff — are acting the way they do. Gonzaga considers those flashbacks important so the audience is less judgmental of the characters. That's important for her because, on the surface, Maya's the kind of ice queen who can cut a room full of amorous men.